Overview

Who am I?

  • A Comparativist
  • A Methodologist

  • An Expert in Chinese Politics

Why taking this class?

  • Because you can become:
    • The scientist outside the laboratory, the master of social complexity, the protector of political truth, and the breaker of rumors and conspiracies

Why taking this class (seriously)?

  • Learn how to conduct research in political science.
  • Learn how to evaluate arguments, evidence, and data.
  • Contribute to your degree.

Some highlights.

  • No final exam!
  • Only one response paper!
  • Only one final project!

More details?

Let's call it for a day!

Being a Political Scienist

Who are the political scientists?

  • Are they?

  • How about them?

  • Or them?

  • NONE OF THEM!

These are!

Why are they political scientists?

  • They believe that they are scientists (lll￢ω￢).

  • They follow the same understanding of political science.
  • They follow the same principles and procedures to study politics.

What's political science?

  • Politics: attempts
    • Organize human groups to determine internal rules
    • Compete and cooperate with other organized groups
    • Reactions to such attempts.

What's Science?

  • Can we use the criteria from social science?

  • Science: Procedure
    • Publicly known
    • Make and evaluate inferences
    • Self-conscious application of methods that are themselves subject to public evaluation.
  • Political Science: The study of politics through the procedures of science.

How to do it correctly?

Step I : Ask a question

  • How did the Charlottesville event happen?
  • Commonly acceptable national health plan?

  • How dare Kim Jong-un go against the whole world?

  • Are they proper questions?

  • Yes and no
    • Puzzle: what we observe does not fit with our preconceptions based on established theory.
    • Substantively important: Whose mind are you going to change about what?

Step II: Clarify your object

  • Conceptualization
    • Explicit
    • Consistent

Step III: Inference

  • Descriptive inference:

    Established premises + a particular set of facts \(\rightarrow\) general conclusions.
    • e.g., Democratic Peace, IOs reduce conflicts
    • Reliability
    • Validity
  • Causal Inference: Counterfactual situation
    • e.g., ?
    • Difficult

Step IV: Presentation

  • Structure
    • Title:
      • "The effect of IGOs on interstate conflict"?
      • Key point + Argument
        • "Mediating interstate conflicts: Regional vs. global international organizations"
    • Abstract: short + powerful
    • Following professional presenting procedure
    • Clear words and plain languages

A good political science research?

  • They should look like her/him!

Who can do it right?

William Howard Taft vs. Robert Maynard Hutchins